Bags & backpacks

The hotbar along the bottom of the screen is not a free set of quick slots. Every slot on it comes from something you are wearing, and each slot only accepts certain items. Press the number key for a slot to equip what hangs there, press it again to put it back. An item hanging on a slot is not in your hands, so you can keep a torch lit and still swing a two-handed weapon.

The angle-headed flashlight is the reason to want webbing: switched on in a webbing slot it lights about 15 tiles while both hands are busy, and it still drains its battery. Webbing will not go on over fanny packs, a shoulder holster, suit jackets, long coats, padded jackets, sheepskin vests, robes or full suits; ordinary jackets, hoodies, sweaters and bulletproof vests are fine, and backpacks and bandoliers stack on top. Our understanding is that the back slot for strapping a long weapon across your shoulders is only free while no bag is worn there, so a pack and a slung rifle are a choice, not a pair. See weapons for what is worth hanging on a belt.

The number that matters is felt weight, which is what counts against your carry limit. For a bag you are wearing or holding it works out as:

Felt weight = contents × (1 − reduction) + the bag's empty weight. The reduction only applies while the bag is equipped. A bag sitting loose in your main inventory counts at full weight, contents and all.

Empty weights are small but not nothing: ALICE pack 2.0, Big Hiking Backpack 1.5, Hiking Backpack 1.2, Duffel Bag 1.0, school bag 1.0, Satchel 1.0, Fanny Pack 0.2, plastic and garbage bags 0.1. Hand containers are heavier for what they hold: Suitcase 3.0, Toolbox 2.0, Cooler 1.5. Here is 10 units of loot in each bag.

Two things fall out of the table. First, the big packs barely differ until they are full: a full ALICE feels like 6.2, a full Big Hiking 5.9, so the ALICE wins on capacity (28 against 22), not on comfort. Second, a duffel is the worst of the back bags at full load, because 65% reduction on 18 units adds up. Organized multiplies container capacity by 1.3 and Disorganized by 0.7, and that applies to bags, world containers and vehicle seats alike.

Going over your limit is graded. pzwiki lists the tiers as over 100% (about 19% slower, endurance recovers more slowly), over 125% (37% slower, no sprinting), over 150% (56% slower, no running, endurance stops recovering and you take slow damage down to 75% health unless you sit) and over 175% (75% slower walking). Sitting on the ground, on furniture or in a vehicle halts the damage. Your base limit comes from Strength, so see skills.

Bags are containers, so they work anywhere a container does, and the same formula applies: nothing inside an unworn bag gets a reduction. That has a few practical consequences.

Bags inside bags

You can drop a full plastic bag into a worn ALICE pack. The worn pack's reduction then applies to everything inside it, inner bag included, so it is a tidy way to keep medicine or ammunition sorted without a weight penalty beyond the inner bag's own 0.1. Do not expect the two reductions to stack. A bag that is nested is not equipped, so its own percentage does nothing. The limit is capacity: the inner bag plus contents must fit in the outer bag's capacity number.

Bags in vehicles and at base

A bag left on a car seat or in a boot is just an item in that container, full weight, which is why it pays to empty hand bags into the vehicle rather than leave them packed. Organized's 1.3 multiplier applies to seats and trunks too, so an Organized driver gets more out of a small car. See vehicles for which models carry the most. At base, a labelled bag in a crate is a cheap way to subdivide storage, and since 42.21 food inside a bag inside a fridge stays cold, so a cooler or tote full of fresh meat no longer spoils because it was packed. Earlier builds only chilled loose items, so if you are on an older save, unpack.

Water and the hydration pack

The hydration pack is the odd one out: 12 capacity plus a 2 L bladder, 3 L for the camo version since 42.18. It drinks from the back slot, so you give up a proper pack for it.

What never goes in a bag

Corpses and live animals are not inventory items. A corpse is grabbed and carried in both hands, which means no weapon until you put it down, and a pile of them is a Noxious Smell problem. Animals are led or driven, never packed; see animals.